Furnace



H. V. LEAHY.

FURNACE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR; 15, 1920.

1,390,798. PatentedSept. 13, 1921.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 1 IN V EN TOR.

Wm; W aw? ATTOR EY H. V. LEAHY.

FURNACE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR 15, 19201 PatentedSept. 13,

5 SHEETS-SHEE z I i 20 l INVENTOR.

H. V. LEAHY.

FURNACE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 15, 1920.

Patented Sept. 13, 1921.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

l Z4 Z4 3 1 3 .50 5

72 22 w. INVENTOR.

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H. V. LEAHY. FURNACE.

A TTORNE Y UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERBERT V. LEAHY, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

FURNACE.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HERBERT V. LEAHY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented a new and useful Furnace, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates more particularly to a type of furnace employing a burner or group of burners for supplying fluid or semi-fiuid fuel to the combustion chamber of the furnace, and an object of the invention, in eneral, is to effect heating of the water tubes in the most efficient manner.

Another object of the invention is to avoid directing the fire against the front wall of the furnace so as to prevent excessive waste of heat.

Another object is to supply the flame with air in a more efficient manner than was heretofore possible.

Another object is to so construct the furnace that the burners, when in operation, will produce a sheet of flame extending transversely of the combustion chamber and upwardly from the floor thereof.

Another object is to provide for directing the flame upwardly or upwardly and forwardly so as to avoid the application of an excessive degree of heat to the lower ends of the water tubes and the front wall of the combustion chamber.

Other objects and advantageswill appear hereinafter.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention.

Figure 1 is a vertical section of a furnace built in accordance with the provisions'of this invention, the plane of section being'indicated by the line m m Fig. 2, and the rear'portion of the furnace being broken away to contract the view. I

Fig. 2 is a plan section on line indicate by na -m Fig. 1. g

Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation on line indicated by U -m Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a plan section on line indicated by $0 Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation on line indicated by aF-w, Fig. 1.

Fig. 6 is a sectional elevation on line indicated by w-m Fig. 1.

Fig. 7 1s a sectional elevation on line in dicated by W at, Fig. 1.

Fig. 8 1s a plan section on line indicated by co -00, Fig. 1.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 13, 1921.

Application filed. March 15, 1920. Serial No. 365,869.

Fig. 9v is a sectional elevation analogous to Fig. 1 showing a modified form of the invention.

The front wall of the furnace is indicated at 1, and 2 indicates the bottom or floor of the furnace. Extending aslant upwardly adjacent the floor 2 toward the front wall 1 is a baffle or shield 3 which is spaced at its upper end from the wall 1 to form an opening indicated at 4. The space between the front wall 1 and shield 3 constitutes the combustion chamber indicated at 5 and mounted in said combustion chamber and extending substantially parallel with the shield 3 is a bank of Water tubes 6, said water tubes extending across the opening 4.

Extending below and opening through the floor of the furnace is a pit or well 7 or a series of such pits or wells, there being shown in the drawings three of such wells. The wells 7 expand upwardly, the front walls thereof being indicated at 8, the side walls at 9 and, in Fig. 1, the rear walls at 10. In Fig. 9 the rear wall is indicated at 11. The walls 8 extend aslant upwardly and forwardly, the walls 9 extend aslant upwardly and outwardly, the walls 10 extend aslant upwardly and rearwardly, and the walls 11 are substantially vertical.

The front walls 8 are provided with air ports 12, the side walls 9 are provided with air ports 13, and the rear walls 10, or 11 are provided with air ports 1 1. The ports 12 of each well communlcate with a separate air supply chamber 15 and the chambers 15 are provided with openings 16 which communic'ate with a transversely extending passage 17 in the bottom of the furnace that communicates with the atmosphere through openings 18. The openings 16 are provided with closures 19 in the form of doors pivotally mounted at 20, and pivoted to the doors 19 at.21 are operating rods 22 whlch extend through the openings 18. The rods 22 are provided with notches 23 which selectively engage stops 24 so as to regulate the degree of opening of the doors 19.

The ports 13, 14 of each well communicate with a flu'e 25 which extends adjacent the side walls and rear walls of the wells as clearly shown in Fig. 4: of the drawlngs.

- The fiues 25 communicate at their front ends through openings 26 with the transverse passage 17 and said openings 26 are pro vided with closures 27 in the form of doors pivotally mounted at 28. Pivoted to t e the level of the furnace floor and said burners are mounted onthe inner ends of pipes 35 that rest in channels 36 formed in the bottom of the furnace, said channels preferably being aslant inwardly and downwardl and extending from the front face of the wall 1 to the wells and communicating at their inner ends with said wells. In installing the burners in place in the wells, it is understood that the channels 36 serve to guide the burners so that they can be inserted from the exterior of the furnace without any trouble.

In the drawings a super-heater 37 is mounted above and rearwardly of the shield 3.

In practice, the furnace may comprise one or more of the wells 7 and said wells may be arranged in a single transversely-extending series or may be arranged in a plurality of such series. Also, if desired, the wells of adjacent series may be positioned in staggered relation in the bottom of the furnace.

The furnace operates as follows: Assuming that a fluid or semi-fluid fuel is being supplied to the burners 34 through the pipes 35 and that the fuel is ignited and burns in a manner well understood in the art pertaming to the combustion of such fuels, the doors 19, 27 will be adjusted by the attendant to supply the requisite amount of air to the flames so as to produce the desired degree of combustion of the fuel. Assuming, for example, that the doors 19, 27 are opened to admit the air, the air thus admitted through the openings 16 will pass into the passages 15, thence through the ports 12 into the wells 7. Also-the air admitted through the openings 26 will pass into the fiues 25, thence through the ports 13, 1 1 'to the interior of the wells. From this it is clear that, when desirable, air may be admitted on all sides of the flames and, also, that the air admitted through the ports 12 may be controlled independently of the air admitted through the ports 13, 14:. It is to be understood that, if deemed desirable, the constructor of the furnace may omit the ports 13 so as to provide ports only in front and behind the flames. The air entering the ports aids the combustion of the fuel and the resulting flames spread fan-wise across the furnace, the spreading being facilitated by the laterally flaring walls of the wells 7. It

weaves is to be noted that the side walls 9 are some what lower than the walls 8, 10, or 11, as the case may be, of the wells so that the flames meet and mingle at their side ed es below the surface of the furnace floor. Thus when all of the burners are in operation there will be produced a continuous sheet of flame extending from side to side of the combustion chamber 5 and upwardly from the floor thereof. The wells having their axis substantially vertical direct the fuel and flames upwardly through the floor into the combustion chamber. Because of the flames being directed upwardly they will not strike the front wall 1, and the heat will not be dissipated to any great extent through the front wall, nor will said front wall he injured as would be the case if the flames played directly against them. In the form of the invention shown in Fig. 1, the wells 7 are located substantially midway of the floor of the combustion chamber 5 so that as the flames rise they follow the approximate course of the arrows and do not come directly in contact with the lower portions of the water tubes 6. The flaming gases pass on upwardly between the upper ends of the tubes 6 and through the opening 4 and come into contact with the super-heater 37. In the form of the invention shown in Fig. 9 a forwardly and upwardly sloping shield 38 above the wall 11 aids in deflecting the flames away from the lower portions of the water tubes so that the flames will not come into direct contact with the lower portions of the tubes. The front face of the shield 38 is preferably in a plane approximately parallel to the tubes.

If it be desired to employ but some of the burners, the burner or burners not in use will be protected from the flames from the burners that are in use because of the burners being located in the bottoms of the wells. This is an incidental though important advantage of this type of construction.

It is clear that the attendant may regulate the volume of air for each burner independently of the others and that the position of each burners flame may be changed by changing the degree of opening of the doors 19, 27 controlling the supply of air for the well in which such burner is mounted. Thus, by admitting more air through the ports 12, the flame may be caused to pass closer to the lower portions of the tubes and farther from the front wall, and by admitting a larger volume of air through the ports 14 the flames may he deflected away from the lower ortion of the tubes.

Below the wel s are fuel sumps 39 which are provided with drains 40 dischargin into the transverse passage 17, so that 011 running out of the burners and not burned will flow into the sumps and therefrom through the drains to the passage 17 and thus away from the fire.

A fundamental difference between furnaces of prior known construction and the a furnace, whereas in this present invention the burner is positioned below the level'ot the furnace floor in a pit or well and discharges upwardly through the floor into the combustion chamber and away from the supply pipes because the orifice a of each burner points toward the roof of the combustion chamber.

The invention is not limited in its broader phases to the exact details of construction shown in the drawings and above described but also embodies such changes and modifications as lie within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a furnace, means forming a com-,

and walls between adjacent burners, the walls separatin adjacent burners having their exposed aces extending aslant upwardly toward each other and there being flues between adjacent walls and there being ports in the walls opening communication between the fiues and the spaces occupied by the burners.

2. In a furnace, the combination of means forming a combustion chamber provided with a well in the floor thereof, there being air ports opening through a wall of the well, the rear wall of the combustion chamber extending aslant upwardly over the well toward the front wall and spaced at its upper end from the front wall to form an opening, a burner positioned in the well and having its orifice pointing toward the mouth of the well, and a bank of water tubes extending aslant from the floor of the combustion chamber upwardly beneath, the rear Wall and across the opening.

Signed at Los Angeles, California, this 6th day-of March 1920.

HERBERT v. LEAHY.

Witnesses:

GEORGE H. HILES, L. BELLE WEAVER. 

